6 LIFE'S SPRINGTIME. I Ml to thinking the world was old, And Joy had flown away; That the precious Idols I dreamed were rold Wer«. after all, but clay. Aat breathed our vows in the old, sweet rhymes— We two, and the happy stars. Lul night as I came through the leafy dell. Where long ago we strayed, X hoarkt to a happy lover tell Hta TOWS to a fair young maid, t heard the song of the whlppoorwlll And the twilight coo of dove, And Up met lip with a blissful thrill I lonely, you'll have to jine with Cpp'n Silver." So far so good. My friends, then, were still alive, and though I partly be lieved the truth of Silver's statement, tUo-t the cabin party were incensed at ine for my desertion, X was more re lieved (ban distressed by what I heard. "J don't say nothing as to your be ing in our hands," continued Silver, "though there you are, and you may lay to it. I'm all for argyment; I never «ce» good come out o' threatening. If you like the service, well, you'll jine; and if you don't, Jim, you're free to answer no —free and welcome, ship mate; and if fairer can be said by mor tal seaman, shiver my sides!" "Am 1 to answer, then ?" I asked, with a very tremulous voice. Through all thia sneering talk, I was made to feel the threat of death that overhung me, iind my cheeks burned and my heart beat painfully in my breast. ".Lad," said Silver, "no one's a-pTes»- Ingof you. Take your "bearings. None of us won't hurry you, mate; time goes ao pleasant in your company, you see." "Wei!," says I, growing a bit bolder, "if I'm tochoose, I declare I have a rig-lit to know what's what, and why you're Lere, and where my friends are." "Wot's wot ?" repeated one of the buc caneers, in a deep growl. "Ah, he'd be a lucky one as knowed that!" "You'll perhaps batten down your hatches till you're spoke, my friend," cried Silver, truculently, to this speak er. "Yesterday morning, Mr. Haw kins," said he,"in the dog-watch, down came Dr. Livesey with a flag of truce. Says he: 'Cap'n Silver, you're sold out. Ship's gone!' Well, maybe we'd been taking a glass, and a song to help it round. 1 won't say no. Leastways none of us had looked out. We looked out, and, by thunder! the old ship was gone. 1 never seen a pack o' fools look fishier; and you may lay to that, if I tells you that I looked the fishiest. 'Well,' says the doctor, 'let's bargain.' We bargained, him and I, and here we are; stores, brandy, block-house, the flre-iwood you was thoughtful enough to cut, and, in a manner of speaking, the whole blessed boat, from cross-trees to keelson. As for them, they've tramped; I don't know where'a they are." Ffe drew again quietly at his pipe. "And lest you should take it into that head of yours," he went on, "that you was included in the treaty, here's the last words that was said: 'How many are you?' says I,'to leave?' 'Four,' says he—'four and one of us wounded. As for the (boy, I don't know where he is, confound him,' says he, 'nor 1 don't much care. We're about sick of him.' These was his words." "Is that all?" I asked. "Well, it's all you're to hear, my son," returned Silver. "And now I am to choose?" "And now you are to choose, and you may lay to that," said Silver. "Well," said I, "I am not such a fool but I know pretty well what I have to look for. Let the worst come to the worst, it's little I care. I've seen too many die since I fell in with you. But there's a thing or twol havetotell you," I said, and by this time I was quite ex cited; "and the first is this: Here you are in the bad way; ship lost, treasure lost, men lost; your whole business gone to wreck; and if you want to know who did It —it was I! 1 was in the apple barrel the night you sight ed land, and I heard you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, and Hands, who is now at the bottom of the sea, and told word you said before the hour was out. And as for the schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was I who killed the men you had aboard of her, and it was I who brought her where you'll never see her more, not one of you. The laugh's on my side; I've had the top of this business from the first; I no more fear you than I fear a fly. Kill me, if you please, or spare me. But one thing I'll say, and no more; if you spare me, by-gones are by-gones, and, when you fellows are in court for piracy, I'll save you all I can. It is for you to choose. Kill another and do yourself no good, or spare me and keep a witness to save you from the gallows." I stopped, for, I tell you, I was out of breath, and, to my wonder, not a man of them moved, but all sat srtaring at me like as many sheep. And while they were still staring, I broke out again: "And now, Mr. Silver," I said, "I be lieve you're the best man here, and if things goto the worst, I'll take it kind of you to let the doctor know the way I took it." "I'll bear it in mind," said Silver, with an accent so curious that I could not, for the life of me, decide whether he were laughing at my request or had been favorably affected by my cour age. "I'll put one to that," cried the old firaliogany-faced seaman—Morgan by name —whom I had seen in Long John's public house upon the quays of Bristol. "It was him that knowed Black Dog." "Well, and see bere," added the sea cook. "I'll put another again to that, by thunder! For it was the. same boy that faked the chart from Billy Bones. First and last we've split upon Jim Hawkins!" "Then here goes!" said Morgan, with an oath. And he sprang up, drawing his knife as if he had been twenty. "Avast, there!" cried Silver. "Who are you, Tom Morgan? Maybe you thought you were captain here, per haps. By the powers, I'll teach you better! Cross me, and you'll go where many a good -man's gone before you first and last, these 30 year back—some to the yard-arm, shiver my sides! and some by the board, and all to feed the fishes. There's never a man looked me between the eyes and seen a good day a'terward, Tom Morgan, you may lay to that." Morgan paused; but a hoarse mur mur rose from the others. "Tom's right," said one. "I stood hazing long enough from one," abided another. "I'll be hanged if I'll be hazed by you, John Silver." "Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with me?" roared Silver, jbonding far forward from his posi tion on the keg, with his pipe still glowing in his right hand. "Put a name on what you're at; you ain't dumb, I reckon. Him that wants shall get it. Have I lived this many years, and a son of a rum puncheon cock his liai athwart my hawse at the latter end of it? You know the way; you're all gentlemen of fortune, by your ac count. Well, I'm ready. Take a cut lass him that dares, and I'll see the color of his inside, crutch and all, be fore that pipe's empty." Not a man stirred; not a man an swered. "That's your sort, is it?" he added, returning his pipe to his mouth. "Well, you're a gay lot to look at, anyway. Not much worth to fight, you ain't. P'r'aps you can understand King George's Knglish. I'm cap'n here by 'lection. I'm cap'n here because I'm the best man by a long sea-mile. You won't fight, as gentlemen o' fortune should: then, by thunder, you'll obey, and you may lay to it! I like that boy, now; and I never seen a better boy than that. He's more of a man than any ' pair of rats of you in this here house, and what I say is this: Let me see him CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, OCTOBER ao, 1898. as'll lay a hand on him—that's what I say, and you may lay to It." There was a long pause after this. I stood straight up against the wall, my heart still going like n sledge-ham mer, but with a ray of hope now shin ing In my bosom. Silver leaned back against the wall, his arms crossed, his pipe in the corner of his inouth, as calm as though he had been inchurch; yethis eye kept wandering furtively, and he kept the tail of it on his unruly fol lowers. They on their part drew grad ually together toward the far end of the block-house, and the low hiss of their whispering sounded in my ears contin uously, like a stream. One after an other they would look up, the red light of the torch would fall for a sec ond on their nervous faces; but it was not toward roe, it was toward Silver they turned their eyes. "You seem to have a lot to say," re marked Silver, spitting far into the air. "Pipe up and let me hear it, or lay to." "Ax your pardon, sir," said one of the men, "you're pretty free with some of the rules; maybe you'll kindly keep an eye upon the rest. This crew's dis satisfied; this crew don't vally bully ing a niarlinspike; this crew has its rights like other crews, I'll make so free as that; and by your own rules, I take it we can talk together. lax your pardon, sir, acknowledging you for to be eapting at this present; but I claim my right, and steps outside for a coun cil." And with an elaborate sea-salute, this fellow, a long, ill-looking, yellow-eyed man of five-and-thirty, stepped coolly tmvard the door and disappeared out of the house. One after another the rest followed his example; each mak ing a fiulute as he passed; each adding some apology. "According to the rules," said one. "Fo'k's'le council," said Mor gan. And so, with one remark or an other, all marched out, and left Silver I and me alone with the torch. The sea-cook Instantly removed his pipe. "Now, look here, Jim Ilawkins," he said, in a steady whisper, that was no more than audible, "you're within half a plank of death, and what's, a long sight worse, of torture. They're going to throw me off. But you mark, 1 stand by you through thick and thin. I didn't mean to; no, not till you spoke up. I was about desperate to lose that much blunt, and be hanged Into the 'bargain. But I see 3 - ou was the right sort. I says to myself: You stand by Hawkins, John, and Ilawkins'll stand by you. You're his last card, and by the living thunder, John, he's yours! Back to back, says I. You save your witness, and he'll save your neck!" I began dimly to understand. "You mean all is lost?" I asked. "Ay, by gum, I do!" he answered. "Ship gone, neck gone—that's the size "Than here tpoes.*' said Morgan, with an oath. of it. Once I looked into that bay, Jim Hawkins, and seen no schooner —well, I'm tough, but gave out. As for that lot and their council, mark me, they're outright fools and cowards. I'll savr; your life—if so be as I can—from them. But see here, Jim—tit for tat—you save bong John from swinging." I was bewildered; it seemed a thing so hopeless he was asking—he, the old buccaneer, the ringleader throughout. "What I can do, that I'll do," I said. "It's a bargain!" cried Long John. "You speak up plucky, and, by thunder! I've a chance." He hobbled to the torch, where it stood propped among the firewood, and took a fresh light to his pipe. "Understand me, Jim," he said, re turning. "I've a head on my shoulders, I have. I'm on squire's side, now. 1 know you've got that ship safe some wheres. How you done it,l don't know, but safe it is. I guess Hands and O'Brien turned soft. I never much be lieved in neither of them. Now you mark me. I ask no questions, nor I won't let others. I know when a game's up, I do; and I know a lad that's stanch. Ah, you that's young—you and me might have done a power of good to gether!" lie drew some cognac from the cask into a tin canikin. "Will you taste, messmate?" he asked; and when I had refused: "Well, I'll take a drain myself, Jim," said he. "I need a caulker, for there's trouble on hand. And, talking o' trouble, why did that doctor give me the chart, Jim?" My face expressed a wonder so un affected that he saw the Heedlessness of further questions. "Ah, well, he did, though," said he. "And there's something under that, no doubt —something, surely, under that, Jim —bad or good." And he took another swallow of the brandy, shaking his great fair head like a man who looks forward to the worst. CHAPTER XXIX. THE BLACK SPOT AGAIN. The council of the buccaneers had lasted some time, when one of them reentered the house, and with a repeti tion of the same salute, which had in my eyes an ironical air, begged for a moment's loan of the torch. Silver briefly agreed; and this emissary re , tired again, leaving us together in the i dark. "There's a breeze coming, Jim," said Silver, who had by this time adopted quite a friendly and familiar tone. I turned to the loop-hole nearest me and looked out. The embers of the great fire had so far burned themselves out and now glowed so low and dusky that I understood why these conspir ators desired a torch. About half way down the slope to the stockade they were collected in a group; one held the light; another was on his knees in their midst, and I saw the blade of an open knife shine in his hand with varying colors in the moon and torchlight. The rest were all somewhat stooping, as though watching the maneuvers of this last. I could just make out that he had a book as well as a knife in his hand, and was still wondering how anything so incongruous had come in their possession, when the kneeling fig ure rose once more to his feet and the whole party began to move together to ward the house. "Here they come," said I, and I re turned to my former position, for it seemed beneath my dignity that they should find me watching them. "Well, let 'em come, lad—let 'em come," said Silver, cheerily. "I've still a shot in my locker." The door opened and the five men, standing huddled together just inside, pushed one of their number forward. In any other circumstances it would have been comical to see his slow ad vances, hesitating as he set down each foot, but holding his closed right hand in front of him. / "Step up, lad," cried Silver. "I won't, eat you. Hand it over, lubber. I know the rules, I do; I won't hurt a depyta tion." Thus encouraged the buccaneer stepped forth more briskly and, having passed something to Silver, from hand to hand, slipped yet more smartly back again to his companions. [TO BE CONTINUED.] A GOOD SUBSTITUTE. The Prince of Wnlen Told to Send Hla Mother. Amidst all the formality which ne cessarily surrounds royialty, it must be quite refreshing to meet with a little genuine naturalness. Such a refresh ment was at one time afforded the prince of Wales by a good magistrate of one of the pottery towns. The duke of Sutherland had pre sented a park to the town to which the worthy man belonged, and it was felt that the opening was an event of suffi cient importance to warrant the invit ing of the prince of Wales to pea-form the ceremony. A deputation according ly waited upon him, and a wealthy mag istrate was chosen as spokesman. Hon est John knew little of court etiquette, and the proper behavior for the oc casion. His claims to the position he assumed lay in the fact that he was large-hearted, rough and ready, and "real Staffordshire." The prince expressed regret that an other engagement would prevent him from officiating at the opening of the park. "I should have been most happy to have con.e," he said, "had I known sooner." "Canna tha spare half a day just to show thy face?" said the worthy spokesman. "We shall look fules when we get back." But eveji the showing of the prince's face was an impossibility, and the deputation was at a loss to know how to proceed. Then a brilliant idea struck the leader, and his eyes brightened as he turned once more to the prince and said: "Well, If tha canna come, send thy mother."—Youth's Companion. \ llachclor'n Snylnnr«. The main trouble with most women is that their husbands don't neglect them enough. Probably the nss had the idea that Balaam was taking her for a present to some woman. When a man refers to Honolulu you may be pretty certain he isn't sure how to pronowice Hawaii. A philosopher is a man who ea.n ad mire a woman after he has found out that she doesn't admire him. A woman will quarrel with her hus band for (wearing his old cout around the house the same day she puts off combing her hair till after breakfast. A man never knows whether he is really in love with a woman till he has tried to imagine how she would look with three of her front teeth out. —X. Y. Press. The Wood I'ulp Indiißtry, It is estimated that 3,000 to 4,000 cords of pulp wood a day enter into the manu facture of paper in the United States At the minimum, 3,000 cords, the total fur a year would be the enormous amount of 900,000 cords. It is safe to call it 1,000,000. If this wood were piled in one continuous string it would mako a wall four feet wide and four feet high a little over 1,515 miles in length. It can be seen what a prodigious thing the wood pulp industry is, and at what a tremendous rate it is devouring trees, mainly spruce. Yet all this wood is converted into paper, which, after be ing xised, vanishes from sight in a fev (Jays and goes back to dust, out of which element the trees grow. The Family Skeleton. Conan Doyle tells the story of o friend of his, who had been often toll' that there is a skeleton in the cupboari of every household, and he determined to put that opinion to a practical test Selecting for the subject of his experi ment a respectable merchant in higl standing, against whom the most cen sorious critic had never breathed i woi-d, he went to the nearest telegrap! office and dispatched this telegram ti the merchant: "All is discovered! Fly Ht once!" The merchant disappeared that very day.and has never been hear I of since.—Golden Dadys. I.one .lonrncj* on Skatra. Laplanders think nothing of cover Log 150 miles a day on their skates. AT AN AUCTION SALE. A Scene In Which ICvery llargHln* Loving Woman Will Kind Some thing Interesting. The vase was about 18 inches high, and! of varying diameter. It was of some sort of crockery or china ware, and it was as ornate as a Lonesome hurst cottage. On one side was a YYat teau young woman, clad in a truly rural pink satin pull'y skirt, mostly all plaits, and! an apple-green bodice, also satin, and a "shepherdess" hat that must have cost, at least $24.80, and white silk stockings that ended in pink satin slippers (high heeled), apparent ly No. 12 children's size. The young "FIVE I AM OFFERED." woman was engaged in holding onto the kind of shepherdess' crook the shepherdesses used always to carry in the olddays—gilded and with vari-hued silk ribbons tied all over it. She was DAINTY FANCY DRESS FOR THE BABY. Kxpensive materials are never very highly recommended for use in children's clothes, for, even with a maid to restrain it, a child cannot resist the temptation to sit in the dirt. One very nice dress can be put aside for special occasions, when even the youngest member of the family is expected to appear to best advantage. A very pretty dress for* * wo-year-old to have for such purposes is made of China silk of some very delicate color. In this rase the little gown is of baby blue. The skirt is made very plain and the only trimming upon it is four rows of heavy stitching of a shade of blue just a little darker than the dress material. The waist is made quite plain also aud 011 either side of the front are lapels which have been slashed in the middle. The rows of heavy stitching trim the lapels, and at the end of each is a large rosette of baby ribbon of the same shade as the dress. The sleeves are large a>id very full. A little navy blue silk cap is worn with this dress and on the top sets a little ball of blue silk fringe. Stitchjng ifl now the popular trimming upon children's dresses and the heavy embroidery silk is used instead of the ordinary spool silk. also industriously engaged in gazing into the branches of a sapphire blue cherry tree, wherein a very red and very spankable Cupid was doing the usual act with a bow and arrow. On the other side a young man with more or less of the same make-up, without the skirt, was climbing a gilt ladder into a gilt balcony shaded oy Tyrian purple vines. The auctioneer held it up. "What am I offered for this real thing?" he inquired, insinuatingly. "Ladies and gentlemen, the age of this vawze is beyond my humble computa tions. Moreover, 1 do not like togo beyond facts that t know. I do know that this Viiwzt adorned the home of the Kussian minister—Caeky—Caeky- owsky—something like that —to this country ~iJ years ago. It passed from his unwilling keeping when lie was re called to the household establishment of the czar. The many vicissitudes through which this vawze has passed in finally reaching my humble but rev erent hands, ladies and gentlemen, were too pathetic to relate. It suf fices to say thai it is a gem lit to have adorned Versai.les —as, indeed, who shall say that it never did adorn Ver sailles? Ladies an ' gentlemen, I ask you to make me ail offering- for this vawze, keeping in mind—" "Two dollars " said a coarse, brutal man at the far enc of the room. The auctioneer looked grieved. "Surely." said he. "you jest. Surely, you must iie unaware of tin- merits of the cherished school of ceramic art to which this—" "Two 'u' a halt," l ,ut another low churl, with a businesslike */«, up ne&i the auctioneer's stand. "I perceive," said the auctioneer, KiuLljr, "that a spirit of merriment per* i ides the room this morning. It is a sorry enough reflection, that a gem, a prize of tl.is character, lad'ies and gentlemen, that a generation agu would have been grabbed at by—" "Well, call it three," said the first man to make a bid "My friend," said the auctioneer shaking his head mournfully, "are you aware that it Is among the possibili ties —indeed, among the probabilities —that this vawze for which you now offer me such paltry sums may at ona time have embellished the boudoirs oi queens?—that the fated Marie An toinette herself—" "Three-fifty," said another man with a low forehead, but a bright, alert eye. It was at this point that the deter mined-looking elderly woman, with the poppy-covered bonnet and the fat old-fashioned p:irse. walked in. Tha love of tradition shone in her eyes, and she flashed a look of contempt at the bidders. "Five dollars" said she, pushing through the crowd close to the auc tioneer's stand. "Ah, madam," said the auctioneer, "you have arrived in season. It is read ily to be determined that you know a good thing when you —that you have a cultivated eye, that is to say, for such perfect products of a sadly deterio rated art as this. Yet I fear you, too* strike too low a note. Five lam of fered' —who then, is to make it ten?— who makes it ten? —ah, ten I am of fered* —" Nobody in the room had spoken. Tha determined-looking elderly woman looked around defiantly and adjusted her spectacles defiantly. " —ten I am offered—who makes fifteen ?—" "Fifteen dollars." said the deter* mined looking woman, and all of tha rest of the room's assemblage looked on with a very great silence. "Fifteen I am offered—it is dreary enough to reflect upon it —but fifteen I am offered —fifteen—fifteen—now, who is to display the acumen and make me—ah, twenty—" Nobody in the room had spoken. "Twenty-five dollars," said the de termined-looking' woman, and she didn't notice the grins of the canaille about her. "And sold to this lady with the euli tivated voice for twenty-five dollors,'" stid the auctioneer, snappingly. "Oh, yes," said the auctioneer, in an easy whisper to a friend, "when, you can get 'em to bid against them selves you're all right." Then he sold another vase of the tame sort for $2.50, —Washington Star. I*l «»>« of ii 31 I«*li IKIIII Woman, Among the laws of Michigan is one i regulating the killing of deer. After I mature reflection, Mrs. A. Ilurd, of I lfarbor Springs, thinks she sees in. the provision.- this statute a wayj I by which she may be reimbursed l'or j the loss of her cow. The bovine was I grazing in the wood not far from. ! Mrs. Hurd's home when it was at-> | tnclced by a buck deer. As a result of j the battle mulley died, and row Mrs.' I Hurt! contemplates suing tlie state for damages. She sets up the plea that j inasmuch as the law prohibited ht r ! from killing the deer which chased. \ and mortally injured her cow. tha i state ought to pay her for the de-> ceased animal or furnish her another, ; "just as good, as the ofliceset J\er ] would say. IOIIKIIMII (self 11 ill I wily. | A cycle railway is something of n, I novelty in practice, though already somewhat stale in theory. A company! is now in process of formation at ! Birmingham .'or '.he construction of a ' "cycle railway,' somewhat ou the lines of a switchback.